Public Art

Wish You Were Here: Northsite /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Wish You Were Here

23 APRIL — 11 JUNE 2022

Northsite Contemporary Art Space, Cairns, Queensland

NorthSite  Gallery 1


An immersive installation of collaged works using paper, projected animation, sound and Augmented Reality (AR) that transports the viewer into an uncertain landscape. 

Created throughout the early days of the pandemic in 2020 and refined in 2022 during post-covid living, Wish You Were Here began as a response to lockdowns and has continued to develop with transforming elements of humour and oddity. In this site-specific installation, uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel, yet go nowhere in this oddball world. Their figurative and abstract forms gently smash together as we all fumble for connection. 

Through repetitive rhythm, monotonous loops, neon lights, Augmented Reality objects in non-specific locations and an unspecified time, Wish You Were Here blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve.

Sound by Mick Dick and AR by Helena Papageorgiou.

 

What did you say 2022: Orange Regional Gallery /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Artist Kellie O’Dempsey , Sound Mick Dick , AR Animations Helena Papageorgiou

Kellie O ’Dempsey’s What did you say? 
Robertson Park, Orange NSW
Thursday 20 – Sunday 30 October 2022. 

This interactive installation was a part of Orange City Council’s Future City Public Art Project. 

Microscopic pores called stomata cover the surface of leaves to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. The word ‘stomata’ comes from the Greek word ‘stoma’ meaning ‘mouth’. What did you say? reimagines a tree’s stomata as the mouth through which the planet breathes. Viewers are asked to listen and engage in deep breathing, to be present in the moment and to connect, consider and rest. Using augmented reality, projected imagery and a soundscape of breathing, the artwork responds to our strange and ever-shifting social and environmental climate. 

What did you say? is a free Future City Public Art installation funded by the NSW Government and Orange City Council.

Videographer: Madli Duff – Nomad Collective
Photography: Mitch Duff – Nomad Collective

 

What did you say 2022: Horizon Festival /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

What did you say 2022

Fri 26 Aug | 5.30–9pm
Sat 27 Aug — Sat 3 Sep | 5–9pm

Wonderland Spiegeltent, Cotton Tree Park, Maroochydore | Kabi Kabi Country

 

What did you say? reimagines a tree’s stomata as the mouth through which the planet breathes. The use of video and sound causes the mouth to breathe via animation and augmented reality. 

What did you say? responds to the strange shifting social and environmental climate. Some mouths breathe with ease; others struggle to catch their breath; a silent few are deathly still. Viewers are asked to both listen and engage in deep and conscious breathing, to be present in the moment and to connect, consider and breathe.  

What did you say? Was projected onto the trees around the gardens of The Wonderland Spiegeltent garden each night. 

 

Creative team:

  • Projection: Kellie O’ Dempsey

  • Sound: Michael Dick (sound)

  • Augmented Reality: Helena Papageorgiou

 

What did you say? /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

What did you say?
7 May 2021 – 16 May 2021
Botanica - Contemporary Art Outside | City Botanic Gardens | Brisbane, QLD

On the epidermis of a tree's leaves, microscopic pores called stomata exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. The word 'stomata' comes from the Greek word 'stoma' meaning 'mouth'. What did you say? reimagines a tree's stomata as the mouth through which the planet breathes. 

Some mouths breathe with ease; others struggle to catch their breath; a silent few are deathly still. Viewers are asked to listen and engage in deep, conscious breathing, to be present in the moment and to connect, consider and rest. 

Using augmented reality, projected imagery and a soundscape of breathing, the artwork responds to our strange and ever-shifting social and environmental climate.

Helena Papageorgiou (augmented reality), Michael Dick (sound).

Credit | Photography & Video: Thomas Oliver
Image Credits Horizon Festival

 

Time Tracing /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Time Tracing
Video Projection | 40 metres long
Wagga Wagga Library and Council Façade | Wagga Wagga, NSW
1 Oct - 30 Oct 2020
Kellie O’Dempsey | Sound: Mick Dick | Videographer: Damien Jenkins from Next Inline Productions | Performers: Wes Boney, Zoë Hadler, Natasha Strimpf, Markus Wright

Time Tracing recreates the map lines of the Murrumbidgee river as giant water drawings in the earth, which–over time–move, extend and connect. Working in collaboration with local Wagga Wagga artists, this large scale video work incorporates dance, movement and sound that simulate the power of the Murrumbidgee river catchment. This ancient and fragile ecosystem has held and traced story for communities throughout time; Time Tracing aims to honour the unique characteristics of the Murrumbidgee river, in all its all states; flood, drought and flow acknowledging the catchment’s significance to communities both past and present.  Filmed on the banks of the river at dusk, with Indigenous and non-Indigenous emerging performers of Wagga Wagga, the video aims to celebrate the River’s connection to the land and people it supports across time as a collision of moving bodies utilise lines and repetition.

Video Link 

Credit | Photography: The Artist

 

Street Love /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Street Love
Projection and light installation, sizes variable, Felicity Park | Caloundra, QLD
2 Oct – 4 Oct 2020 | Projections in Felicity Park
2 Oct – 30 Oct 2020 | Window light boxes over Felicity Park

Street Love celebrates community space as a place of consideration and wonder. Curator and artist, Kellie O’Dempsey, invited audiences to share in a participatory exchange through perceptual experience incorporating projection, video, sound and light installation. Street Love includes artwork by Kellie O’Dempsey, Adam Anderson, CLUNKK (Sophie Reid-Singer) and sound by Mick Dick. Together these artists explore the relationship between the physical environment, light, and colour while utilising video to create new interpretations of familiar places.

Place2Play was a creative public activation program in line with the Caloundra Public Art Plan. The project brought temporary and permanent artwork to our streets and laneways, inspiring new ways for residents and visitors to experience and rediscover Caloundra.

 
 
 
 
 

Links | Place2Play
Credits | Photographer: Tim Birch, The Artist

 
 
Street Love logo 1.png
Street Love
Street Love

Ensemble /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Photographer: Andrew Willis

 

Ensemble
June 2018
Projection on William Jolly Bridge | Brisbane, Australia
For the Brisbane Classic Music Festival
Presented by BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL


Ensemble was originally created live during a performance featuring members of the Shanghai Chamber Ensemble. Describing two of the violinists, the dynamic and bold brush marks were a direct response to the virtuosity of the musicians playing. This drawing interprets the energy and flow of sound through a fluid and liquid application. It creates itself as a direct translation of drawing music in real time.

Credit | Photographer: Andrew Willis

 
 
 

Elysium /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Elysium
Lateen Lane | Byron Bay NSW
2014

ELYSIUM brought together a team of creative professionals driven by a desire to activate under-utilised urban spaces and transform them into places of wonder and beauty. The project’s aim was to uplift and enliven a key CBD site through a curated application of colour, pattern, light, form, texture and planting–integrated with existing structures and in collaboration with tenants and building owners.

A transformation project of this scale and calibre is a first for Byron Bay. ELYSIUM intentionally moved away from traditional imagery associated with the area and instead aimed to provide locals and visitors with something entirely different–an immersive and contemporary art experience.

Find the installation video here.